What we learned today, Friday 14 February
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big ones:
The New South Wales government urged commuters to delay non-urgent travel today, amid industrial action.
Out-of-control bushfire beared down on Tasmania’s west coast, with more than 20 blazes raging as weather conditions rapidly change. The blazes put people and homes at high risk but were later downgraded.
Peter Dutton was asked about accusations from the Trump administration that Australian exporters had exploited the tariff exemptions it was granted in 2018 – did Australia break its promise to Trump? The opposition leader said the “short answer is no” and that he doesn’t support the tariffs “at all”.
Education minister, Jason Clare, has also weighed in on those reports of an interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea. On Sunrise, he was asked about China’s response to the fighter jet incident – that Australia had violated Chinese sovereignty – and said this was wrong.
A nurse at the centre of a video chat showing two NSW hospital workers making anti-Israeli comments was hospitalised on Friday night over welfare concerns, after the recording published on Instagram by an Israeli content creator attracted widespread political condemnation.
A reporter asked Bob Katter and Helen Haines if they had been confused as being teal independents – which Katter laughed off. Haines described the “teal” label as an “invention of the media to try to describe what happened in 2022”.
Former NDIS minister Bill Shorten was conferred as the seventh vice-chancellor of the University of Canberra (UC) in a ceremony at its Bruce campus.
GFG Alliance has been under intense pressure from the South Australian government to pay tens of millions of dollars owed to creditors of the Whyalla steelworks and the government, including $15m to SA Water.
Cyclone Zelia started making its way along the WA coast, to the east of Port Hedland. Authorities were asking those near the cyclone to stay safe and heed warnings.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. We will be back next week with the blog.
Updated
Australia accused of ‘provoking’ China in South China Sea
China accused Australia of deliberately “provoking” China in the South China Sea this week, and of “invading” and “breaking into” the homes of others, its defence ministry said on Friday, Reuters reports.
The ministry spokesperson said Australia was spreading “false narratives”.
Australia on Thursday raised concerns with China over what it said were “unsafe and unprofessional” actions by a Chinese fighter jet towards an Australian maritime patrol in the South China Sea earlier in the week, an account disputed by Beijing.
Updated
ASX hits record for third day this week
The local share market has hit a new record for a third day this week, despite double-digit losses for Cochlear and AMP after disappointing earnings results, AAP reports.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Friday finished up 28.6 points, or 0.34%, to 8,568.6 while the broader All Ordinaries climbed 20.9 points, or 0.24%, to 8,825.1.
About 11am the ASX200 had breached 8,600 for the first time, climbing as high as 8,615.2.
It also broke records on Wednesday and Thursday.
The index rose 0.5% for the week, its fifth week of gains in the past six.
Updated
NSW Greens call on mental health minister to rule out private hospitals holding patients involuntarily
Involuntary mental health patients being treated in a private hospital is a “fundamental human rights concern”, the NSW Greens say as they call the state government to rule out the possibility.
Guardian Australia in January revealed the NSW government was considering moving public patients to private settings in preparation for the mass resignations of the state’s psychiatrists - despite concerns private hospitals were not appropriate settings for high-risk patients and they were not legally able to take involuntary patients (those detained under the Mental Health Act).
On January 30, NSW health secretary Susan Pearce announced the government had begun moving public psychiatric patients into private hospitals, and said it is was also considering declaring these for-profit facilities as legally able to admit involuntary patients.
NSW Greens’ health spokesperson, Dr Amanda Cohn, has started a petition calling on the NSW mental health minister, Rose Jackson, to rule out this option.
The petition states “the possibility of profit motives influencing the assessment of people experiencing mental illness and whether or not they are detained against their will is a fundamental risk to human rights.”
Cohn, a former GP said the prospect has “rightly alarmed people with lived experience of mental illness and their loved ones”.
“For-profit involuntary care is counter to the principles of the Mental Health Act, under which care must be delivered through the least restrictive means necessary.
“So far, the NSW government has responded to the mass resignation of psychiatrists by plugging gaps with expensive, inefficient temporary staff, and now it wants to put the most vulnerable patients in private hospitals not equipped to support them.”
Updated
NSW police say full nurses video has not been directly provided to them
NSW police have said the Israeli content curator who recorded a video of two Sydney nurses saying they refused to treat Israeli patients and would kill them, has not released the full video to them.
In a statement, police said:
NSW Police provided the correct contact details to the influencer at the centre of this inquiry.
Investigators have requested a full and unedited version of the video as part of this investigation.
Police are aware an extended version has been posted online, however nothing has been directly provided to NSW Police.
Discussions between NSW Police and the influencer remain open and ongoing.
Yesterday nurses Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh had their registration suspended.
Updated
Government consulting with tech industry on YouTube exclusion from under-16s media ban
The federal government is conducting confidential consultations with the tech industry over the decision to explicitly exclude YouTube from the under 16s social media ban.
Guardian Australia has seen briefing documents sent to industry this week seeking feedback on the proposed platforms the ban would apply to.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said last year that YouTube would be included in a range of services exempt from the ban on health and education grounds, but in the draft wording of the document that sets out what services are exempt, YouTube is granted an exemption on its own, while health and education services are another carve-out.
In the document, the communications department states that “based on research” from the eSafety commissioner:
YouTube has consistently ranked as one of the top digital services used by children and young people in Australia. While the platform undoubtedly functions as a source of entertainment and leisure, it is an important source of education and informational content, relied on by children, parents and carers, and educational institutions. This contrasts substantially with other content streaming services, which are predominantly used by young people to view short-form entertainment content.
The exclusion of YouTube from the ban has raised some eyebrows in the sector, given it has many of the same algorithmic, rabbit-hole features that other platforms have been accused of that led to the under 16s ban.
Guardian Australia has sought comment from the minister’s office.
Updated
Sydney parents urged to organise alternative transport from school amid rail delays
Sydney transport authorities have warned parents of schoolchildren who rely on trains to get home to organise alternative pickups, as industrial action cripples the city’s rail network.
More than 90% of morning peak services were either cancelled or delayed. By 1:30pm on Friday, more than 800 services had been cancelled across all lines, with the T2 Leppington and Inner West and T8 Airport and South lines hardest hit. There were cascading delays across the network, with 396 not running to time.
By 2pm, when a key roster period began, 576 train drivers and guards hadn’t turned up to work – including a “big uptick” in sick leave at rates not seen since the height of Covid.
Disruptions were likely to worsen throughout the afternoon and evening, Sydney Trains CEO Matt Longland said, while urging staff rostered on from 2pm to turn up for work.
Longland said buses were shuttling travellers from Central Station to the airport but he suggested, as an alternative, catching the Metro to Sydenham and then taking a taxi or Uber. The Metro is operated separately and was unaffected by industrial action.
A cap on Uber surge pricing will continue to be in place on Friday afternoon, while parents of school children who return home by train have been told to organise alternative pickups.
Updated
Emergency services commissioner: ‘Don’t go into floodwaters’
Commissioner Darren Klemm says some Aboriginal communities have decided to remain in situ but authorities are in contact with those who have stayed.
He says the cyclone crossing the east of Port Hedland is “a better result”.
It’s really important people are following the warnings on Emergency WA. Don’t go into floodwaters. Don’t need kids playing in floodwater.
Updated
‘Hazards won’t ease once cyclone has passed’
Commissioner Darren Klemm is up now:
With cyclone Zelia crossing the Pilbara coast, our emergency services focus shifts to dealing with the impacts of the destructive weather from this system.
It is critical that impacted communities don’t get complacent, because the hazards won’t ease once the cyclone has passed.
Conditions after a cyclone can be just as dangerous as the cyclone itself, including damaged buildings, fallen power lines and debris, is extremely important that people remain indoors until the warnings change on emergency WA.
Updated
WA authorities warn of ‘very destructive’ impact of cyclone Zelia
Authorities in Western Australia are issuing a warning about the impact of cyclone Zelia:
The very destructive core of the system, the area around the eye of the cyclone, is impacting that coast, as I said, to the east of Port Hedland, now bringing very destructive wind gusts up to 290 kilometres per hour, and intense rainfall and flooding.
Port Hedland is not expected to be impacted by the very destructive eye wall, but damaging to destructive wind gusts are still likely this afternoon and into this evening.
Updated
Cyclone Zelia crossing WA coast earlier than expected
Tropical cyclone Zelia is crossing the WA coast earlier than expected. It is now crossing the De Grey River mouth, to the east of Port Headland.
And authorities are up speaking.
Updated
Decision to withdraw Khaled Sabsabi from Venice Biennale ‘deeply troubling’
Australia’s peak advocacy body for contemporary Australian artists has condemned Creative Australia’s decision to withdraw Lebanese-born Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi from the 2026 Venice Biennale.
The executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts (Nava), Penelope Benton, told the Guardian the decision by Creative Australia’s board made on Thursday evening was “deeply troubling”.
“This is a devastating and terrifying moment for artistic freedom in Australia,” Benton said.
“The decision to retract support from an artist of Sabsabi’s calibre in response to political and media pressure is an attack on arms-length arts funding and the independence of the arts sector.”
Benton said the decision to withdraw Sabsabi’s selection as Australia’s representative at the biennale threw doubt on the Australian government’s ability to uphold the right of artists to critically engage with history and politics.
“The government’s intervention in this selection process is an outrageous overreach that threatens the very foundation of independent arts funding,” she said.
At the core of the controversy is Sabsabi’s 2007 video installation titled You, which includes images of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The artist gifted the work to Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in 2009.
Benton said the work exemplified Sabsabi’s ability to contextualise contested histories and challenge dominant narratives.
“Recent misrepresentation of this work — specifically, the distortion of his use of an image of Hassan Nasrallah — demonstrates a profound lack of engagement with artistic practice and context,” she said.
The former longstanding director of the MCA, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, took to social media on Friday to condemn the Creative Australia decision, saying on Instagram she was “shocked and disgusted”.
“Instead of defending an artist from the bullying and misrepresentation of his work by the Australian newspaper amplified by politicians who haven’t even seen it, Creative Australia caves in,” she posted.
“I hope the Venice Biennale supporters withdraw their support .”
Updated
RSL Victoria defends call for taxpayers to fund for Anzac Day ceremony, despite millions in pokies revenue
RSL Victoria’s president, Rob Webster, has defended calls for the state government to cover the cost of Melbourne’s biggest Anzac Day service, despite some sub-branches generating more than $2bn from poker machines in a decade.
Earlier today, Guardian Australia revealed an internal push for the RSL to stop paying for the services, so money could instead be spent on supporting veterans in need. The call came from sub-branch representatives who feared they could close due to financial challenges.
In an interview with ABC Melbourne, Webster said state and local governments provided about $160,000 for Anzac Day services in the City of Melbourne. He said the RSL paid about half a million dollars last year.
A recent study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health found RSL Victoria sub-branches with poker machines collected $2.097bn in revenue from gambling between 2009 and 2019.
During the interview, Epstein asked why the RSL didn’t demand a bigger share of that money to finance the Anzac Day ceremonies. Webster said sub-branches did provide the state executive with money, but suggested it wasn’t enough:
They give us $6m a year to run various activities a year, including Anzac Day. But it is still always a struggle to get the money.
I accept that there is some suggestion that we don’t get enough money from sub-branches, but sub-branches run about 30% of their turnover back to their community... much of it to veterans. It goes into the local footy club, it goes into local schools for scholarships. We also need to maintain upkeep of buildings where veterans meet.
Webster said RSL sub-branches with poker machines used some of that revenue to run Anzac Day ceremonies in their own communities.
Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, Cait Kelly will take you through the rest of today’s rolling coverage. Take care, and enjoy your weekend.
Wind gusts at Port Hedland already exceeding 80km/h
Here are the current weather observations for Port Hedland – in the path of Tropical Cyclone Zelia – where it is at around 11.30am.
The data is as of 11.11am, local time:
Wind speed: 63km/h
Wind gust: 85km/h
Rain since 9am: 7.4mm
Updated
Cost-of-living crunch fuelling DV support service need
Women escaping domestic and family violence are facing greater barriers due to the cost-of-living crisis, AAP reports, with advocates calling for dedicated funding for support services in the federal budget.
An estimated 1,000 women each week are being turned away from support services due to a lack of capacity.
In its submission to the 2025-26 federal budget, Women’s Legal Services Australia (WLSA) has called for urgent funding of $52m over five years to help meet demand and ensure victim-survivors of violence can access the specialist legal help they need. Chair Elena Rosenman said:
This is a national crisis, and the demand for our services is only growing. Financial stress is a well documented factor in domestic violence, and rising living costs are making it even harder for victim-survivors to leave abusive relationships.
More than 26,000 women accessed legal assistance and non-legal support from WLSA in 2023-24.
Along with the rising cost of living, a number of additional factors are contributing to the increased need for legal services, the peak body said in its submission. This includes the increasing frequency and severity of climate disasters, which exacerbates financial stress within families and escalates domestic violence.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). Lifeline 13 11 14.
Updated
ADF heavy-lift aircraft to support WA emergency services amid tropical cyclone
The emergency management minister, Jenny McAllister, says she has spoken with defence minister Richard Marles and that ADF heavy-lift aircraft will be available to support state emergency services in Western Australia.
In a post to X, she wrote:
The ADF heavy-lift aircraft will support the supply of equipment, machinery, materials and other essential goods. This will supplement the national heavy-lift helicopter that is already being deployed to Western Australia to assist.
Updated
WA communities in path of Tropical Cyclone Zeila warned to prepare to shelter
A watch and act alert, urging people to prepare to take shelter, has been enacted for some communities in the path of Tropical Cyclone Zelia in Western Australia.
The warning area is from west of Roebourne to Paraburdoo, Karijini National Park to Marble Bay to Eighty Mile Beach, and east of Pardoo Roadhouse. The alert reads:
There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a cyclone is approaching the area. You need to take action and get ready to shelter from a cyclone.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has enacted a flood watch for the following catchments:
Fortescue River
Onslow Coast
Ashburton River
Gascoyne River
Heavy to locally intense rainfall associated with the tropical cyclone is expected to cause rapid river level rises and widespread areas of flooding from this afternoon, it warned.
⚠️11:01am update. Severe Tropical #CycloneZelia expected to make landfall between #PortHedland and #DeGrey this afternoon.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Western Australia (@BOM_WA) February 14, 2025
Warning zone: #WallalDowns to #Roebourne (not including Roeburne) including #PortHedland, inland to #Paraburdoo.
Details: https://t.co/5Ux3tdpaWS pic.twitter.com/BtOaIOjPj1
Updated
SA premier Malinauskas approaching news of GFG deal with ‘great caution’
Continuing from our last post, via AAP: GFG Alliance has also been under intense pressure from the South Australian government to pay tens of millions of dollars owed to creditors of the Whyalla steelworks and the government, including $15m to SA Water.
GFG chairman Sanjeev Gupta said today’s agreement with the Greensill creditors is “a great relief for GFG and … gives us a financial platform for recovery and growth.”
The $150m in financing Gupta was seeking had been expected to be finalised before the end of 2024.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, who visited Whyalla on Tuesday to “gather intelligence” from GFG’s creditors, said he welcomed the news. He told FIVEAA in Adelaide:
It is on the face of it good news, but I approach it with great caution. And the reason why I say that is because I’ve seen a number of statements by GFG over the months and years – some as promising as this one – and they haven’t fully materialised.
Updated
Billionaire Sanjeev Gupta to sell coalmine to prop up Whyalla steelworks
A UK billionaire will try to sell a coalmine to prop up the Whyalla steelworks, AAP reports, as he announced a deal to settle billions of dollars of debt linked to a financier’s collapse.
GFG Alliance chairman Sanjeev Gupta says a debt settlement deal had been reached with creditors of global financier Greensill Capital, which had advanced billions of dollars in credit to GFG before it collapsed in 2021.
But the deal, which GFG said would be the “final chapter” in clearing worldwide debts of up to $US4bn ($A6.3bn), is subject to final legal agreement and will return to court in the UK in six weeks.
GFG had launched an “expedited process” to sell its equity in the Tahmoor Coking Coal mine in NSW and some of the proceeds from the sale would be available for reinvestment in Whyalla, allowing the firm “to catch up with supplier payments and boost liquidity, subject to board approval”, the company said.
The Tahmoor sale could reportedly be worth up to $800m. Production at the mine halted in January and workers were sent home on full pay, after suppliers stopped deliveries over unpaid bills.
Updated
Bill Shorten conferred as University of Canberra VC
Former NDIS minister Bill Shorten has been conferred as the seventh vice chancellor of the University of Canberra (UC) in a ceremony at its Bruce campus.
Addressing attendees, among them chief minister Andrew Barr and former parliamentary colleague Katy Gallagher, Shorten acknowledged recent times had “not been easy” for UC, nor throughout higher education, which he described as the “great liberator of personal freedom”.
We have to accept the challenges of the current environment. The entire university sector, not just UC, is in a state of change – mirroring the state of our world. Our success will lie in what we do now, how we collaborate, how we look after ourselves and how we contribute to the wellbeing of others.
I am ready to grasp the opportunity that always accompanies change. I bring to this role an energy and vision and – for anyone who has followed my career – a persistence that rivals that of my bulldog, Walter, when he wants his dinner.
Shorten noted “divisions and bigotries” were on the rise globally, ones that “we had hoped had been consigned, forever, to the chronicles of history”.
But this is not inevitable. We can make a difference. We start by ensuring our campus is safe. It must be safe for everybody. There are natural freedoms, but there must be respect. You can debate and have any idea you like, but there is no place for antisemitism, racism, homophobia, misogyny. We have to nourish our democracy and safeguard our pluralist society.
And the critical thinking and embrace of diversity, the exposure to different cultural perspectives our students experience here, is a key factor in this goal.
Updated
Katter and Haines wrap up NPC appearance with questions from the Betoota Advocate
Wrapping up their appearance at the National Press Club, a reporter asked Bob Katter and Helen Haines a question each on behalf of satirical news site the Betoota Advocate. Katter was asked:
Dear Bob, I’m sorry to betray your trust by revealing the private conversation we had at Mount Isa’s Barkly Hotel in 2017 over a few drinks. I believe you’re the only man who knows the true story behind Waltzing Matilda … On behalf of Australia, I’m asking – what else do you know about the joggy swagman’s death? The people of Australia deserve answers.
With much laughter from the crowd, Katter responded:
I’ve always been very involved with trade unions and my brothers know he was a scab.
And for Haines, Betoota asked if “Wodonga [is] the Springfield of the Upper Murray, and Albury the Shelbyville? Or is it the other way around?”
She replied that “I think actually Wodonga is the Paris of the north of Victoria” – to which Katter laughed, “Please, Helen, please.”
Updated
Helen Haines: ‘rural and regional Australians feel left behind in the transition to renewables’
At the National Press Club, a reporter asked whether renewable energy provides an economic opportunity for the regions – and Helen Haines said it does, “if we do it right”.
She said the regions are struggling with “a decade of denial around our need to de-carbonise” and a decade of no planning.
And critically, we did no education piece. We did no genuine consultation with rural and regional Australians about how this was all going to work and who would benefit.
Haines said a focus of her term in parliament has been working with the energy minister to draw his attention to this – that “rural and regional Australians feel left behind in the transition to renewables”.
They’re seeing massive landscape change, a change to their visual amenity – which really means something to us in the bush – genuine concerns about what grid-scale solar means in terms of bushfire safety. What does grid-scale energy look like in terms of biosecurity risks, insurance, land values for adjoining properties? These are real and genuine concerns from real and genuine rural and regional Australians.
She said the government needs to get the community benefit angle of the transition right and “get rid of the cowboys who stir up fear in communities”.
We need our rural councils, our leaders in rural communities, getting in there on the front foot and saying, ‘OK, we’re in a renewable energy zone. This is what it means to us. This is what we want out of it.’ … This is a massive opportunity and I’m absolutely determined to hold whoever holds power really accountable for getting this right for us in the bush.
Updated
Major parties weaponise ‘teal’ label, Helen Haines says
A reporter asked Bob Katter and Helen Haines if they had been confused as being teal independents – which Katter laughed off.
Haines described the “teal” label as an “invention of the media to try to describe what happened in 2022”.
[This was] when so many women mainly from [Sydney, Melbourne and Perth] were elected to the crossbench. So it’s shorthand for that group of women – fantastic representatives of their communities. They hold … a lot of views and have a whole lot of views in common.
Haines said she doesn’t believe it is “confusion” when people call her a teal, but it is more deliberate:
I think it’s very deliberate because there’s been, from the major parties, a weaponisation of that term. And any women in the audience today who find themselves being successful in their career and exercising the power that comes with office will be familiar with the many ways that the system attempts to undermine their authority. And I think ‘teal’ is part of that.
Updated
Haines says independents come together every week when parliament sits
Asked if there is a regular caucusing of independents, with toing and froing between offices on various legislation, Helen Haines said communication expanded after the crossbench grew in 2022:
What we do, and what we agreed to do – not a formal agreement – but what we talked about when the crossbench expanded so dramatically in the 2022 election, was [that] it would be useful to all of us if we knew what each other was doing in terms of amending legislation, for example … It’d be kinda crazy if every independent was trying to get the same amendment [on a particular piece of legislation]. We come together once a week when parliament sits. We talk about – what’s the forthcoming legislation? Has anyone got any amendments? Has anyone got any events coming up that they’re sponsoring?
Updated
Bob Katter and Helen Haines speaking at National Press Club
Katter’s Australian party MP Bob Katter and Independent MP Helen Haines have been speaking at the National Press Club today, moderated by Guardian Australia columnist Gabrielle Chan.
They have been discussing the role of regional independents, and whether they are there to “keep the bastards honest” or to change the system. Katter said that for him, it’s very much the latter.
Haines said that Australia has “produced a community independent movement which is completely different to what we’ve seen anywhere else in the world”. As to the question, she said she wants to be both.
Haines said the impact of the independents in bringing about the National Anti-Corruption Commission “cannot be denied.”
And I think it was one of the significant features that brought about the downfall of the Morrison government, quite frankly, as he was intransigent to doing anything about that … The National Anti-Corruption Commission is one piece, but there’s a whole lot of reform in the integrity space that we need to do.
Haines also highlighted the “disrupting force of particularly a large group of women coming onto the crossbench” to combat “the misogyny, the awful behaviour that was detailed breathtakingly in the Jenkins review.”
So if that’s disruption, if that’s a protest vote, it’s a different kind of protest vote to what we’re seeing in the United States.
Updated
The latest on Tropical Cyclone Zelia
The Bureau of Meteorology says Tropical Cyclone Zelia is expected to make landfall this afternoon near Port Hedland. It is currently a category five system.
Severe Tropical #CycloneZelia, a category 5 system, is moving to the south south-east and expected to make landfall this afternoon near #PortHedland.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 14, 2025
#CycloneZelia to bring very destructive winds and intense rainfall to the Pilbara coast.
Latest: https://t.co/QdjBLkJdvZ pic.twitter.com/GeIb7GTLla
The tropical cyclone has sustained winds near the centre of 205km/h, with wind gusts up to 285km/h.
It is currently 85km north of Port Hedland and 210km north north-west of Marble Bar, moving south south-east.
It is expected to make landfall this afternoon near or to the east of Port Hedland, with intense rainfall as it crosses the coast. At this time, destructive wind gusts up to 290km/h are likely close to the centre of the cyclone.
Updated
Failed triple zero calls ‘not related’ to 3G shutdown, Telstra says
Several failed triple-zero calls during a fatal farm fire were not caused by the closure of the 3G mobile network, according to a Telstra investigation.
AAP reports that the telco investigated reports that emergency calls failed or dropped out during a fire in a paddock at Goohli, in north-west NSW, on 14 December 2024.
A 39-year-old man who had been operating machinery on the property was flown to Royal North Shore hospital with burns, but died the next day. The incident had been raised at Senate hearings investigating the effect of the 3G mobile network closure.
Shanyn Sparreboom, a senior public servant from the federal communications department on Wednesday told the inquiry Telstra advised the government of the incident and prepared a report. It found eight calls were made to triple zero on that day, three of which did not connect due to poor signal strength, Sparreboom said.
A Telstra statement said its investigation found the failed calls – including some from other mobile providers – either cut out or did not connect.
These calls were made in areas with traditionally poor to no coverage and not related to the closure of 3G.
Its investigation found its 4G upgrades in the region allowed the other calls to connect.
There was previously little to no coverage there. We offer our condolences to the family of the man who tragically lost his life ... and we have thoroughly investigated this incident.
Updated
Video chat nurse taken to hospital over welfare concerns
A nurse at the centre of a video chat showing two NSW hospital workers making anti-Israeli comments was hospitalised last night over welfare concerns, after the recording published on Instagram by an Israeli content creator attracted widespread political condemnation.
Emergency services were called to a home in Bankstown around 8:55pm following reports of a concern for welfare, NSW Police said in a statement. A 27-year-old man was taken to hospital for assessment.
NSW Police said yesterday that have spoken to an Israeli influencer who they say has agreed to provide investigators with an unedited version of a video chat.
Max Veifer, the influencer who posted the video, appears to have released the full recording of their video chat on Instagram today.
Updated
Tasmania fire warnings downgraded as conditions moderate
Tasmanian State Fire commander Jeremy Smith has said multiple warnings were downgraded from emergency warnings to watch and act in the state’s north-west last night. However, members of the public are asked to remain vigilant.
Encouragingly, bushfire conditions have moderated overnight, however we advise residents and members of the public to remain alert and keep up to date with the latest emergency information through TasALERT.
We have been dealing with very dynamic conditions on the fire ground due to strong winds and high fire dangers and we encourage all members of the public, especially those in the affected areas, to keep up to date with the latest emergency information.
Our main fires of concern are at Yellowband Plain, Pieman River, Mt Donaldson and Canning Peak fires.
An emergency warning remains in place for Corrina and surrounds and a watch and act remains in place for Zeehan and surrounds. The evacuation centre at Queenstown Sports Stadium remains open.
Updated
Tropical Cyclone Zelia update
The Bureau of Meteorology has shared a video update on category five Tropical Cyclone Zelia, due to cross the Pilbara coast today.
Severe Weather Update: Category 5 tropical cyclone Zelia crossing the Pilbara coast today
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 14, 2025
Video current: 6:00 am AWST 14 February 2025
Latest forecasts and warnings: https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/BgR1NbtPIs
Updated
NSW treasurer says union did not include $4,500 payment in log of claims
Taking questions from reporters around that $4,500 payment, Daniel Mookhey said:
The way in which bargaining takes place is that unions begin by lodging a log of claims, and clearly they did not include this in their log of claims …
They are disputing as to whether they needed to ultimately – ordinarily, common sense would suggest that if you are asking for $60m in pay, you’d claim it. The fact that it wasn’t in their log of claims is the reason why the machinery of government wasn’t triggered, until they claimed it last night …
Most people would understand that that clause automatically expires, unless you demand for it to stay. And it’s disappointing that the dispute is having to bog down in this level of minutia, when, frankly, the offer on the table is pretty good.
Updated
Sydney train delays and cancellations expected to ‘increase throughout the day’
Next up was Matt Longland, the CEO of Sydney Trains, who said there were “significant gaps” in the network with more than 350 drivers and guards not at work today.
He said one quarter of services had been cancelled so far today, around 465 services, with delays and cancellations “across every line on the Sydney trains network”.
We are seeing particular impacts on the T2 and on the T8 line at the moment. Our advice to passengers is to obviously look for alternative modes of transport, particularly for those that are traveling to the airport.
We have a limited number of coaches operating from Central Station, running a shuttle service to the airport, but we expect that the delays and the cancelations will increase throughout the day.
He said the next round of crews would start work at 2pm, when the number of cancellations is expected to increase.
This afternoon, we’ll be doing everything we can to keep services operating safely. This is a very challenging period, and clearly we can’t operate trains without train drivers. That’s the challenge that we have at the moment. We’ll continue working through the day.
Updated
NSW treasurer: ‘the union is gaslighting Sydney’
The NSW treasurer Daniel Mookhey also addressed the media and argued this was a “bad faith move” from the union to take this action “at the public’s expense.”
I have seen some of the communications from the union this morning. I do want to say that I think the union is gaslighting Sydney. I think what they’re saying to the public is, and what they’re saying to the government, and what they’re saying to the courts is clearly very different to what they’re saying to their own members …
We wanted this dispute solved for a long time. We have been working, and I’ve got to say, until last night, in good faith, working through many of the remaining issues that were outstanding. We do need to get this dispute behind us. The public deserves better than the way in which they’re being treated.
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Graham: ‘this needs to be settled’
Continuing to address the media, John Graham said the government is launching applications with the Fair Work Commission to stop industrial action from taking place.
We’ll be seeking an urgent hearing in order to have that take effect, and that will provide us a path forward were also due in the commission …
We understand that this needs to be settled. The concern here is, if the government agreed to this most recent demand, when would this end? There’s a fair offer on the table. We would like it to be considered.
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NSW transport minister: this is ‘not a lockout’
John Graham said this is “not a lockout”, as the union had suggested, and the government “want[s] these drivers at work”.
We want these trained staff at work while these negotiations continue. That’s the goal here.
But equally, the premier, since last year, has made it clear we’re not going to pay people to take industrial action. Workers have got a right to take industrial action, but it’s very rare they’d expect to be paid for it as well. That’s not the case with nurses taking industrial action …
In this situation, the government has been clear since December that we won’t be paying people to take industrial action.
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NSW transport minister on $4,500 ‘one-off payment’ behind train delays
John Graham said the key sticking point of negotiations was a $4,500 one-off payment.
Earlier, RTBU NSW secretary Toby Warnes argued the only reason the $4,500 figure was raised was because the union offered to forego this in favour of a pay increase in year three:
The only reason the $4,500 came up is because we sought to bargain with the government and say, we can forego the $4,500, we’ll delete that clause from the enterprise agreement, in order to increase the pay increase in year three.
Just now, Graham said this was in place under the last agreement “several transport ministers ago” as a one-off payment.
The government view is, this was a one-off payment in the last agreement. The Liberal opposition view is this is a one-off payment in the last agreement. The minister who offered it last time says this was a one-off agreement. It’s only the union who believes this was on the table over 10 months, and that is now the key barrier to reaching agreement here.
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NSW transport minister on train delays and cancellations: ‘people are sick of the chaos’
The NSW transport minister, John Graham, is addressing reporters in Sydney amid train delays and service cancellations across the state’s rail network, as pay negotiations between unions and the state government grind to a halt.
Graham said more than 350 staff had not attended work today, and this was having a “big impact” on commuters.
I want to apologise to those people who been affected. There’s no question that this is having a big impact on the city. The government understands that people are sick of the train chaos in Sydney, and we want to work to find a way to end this.
Updated
Albanese visits Port Kembla steelworks and fields more tariff threat questions
Following the PM’s earlier press conference, Anthony Albanese then continued a tour of Wollongong by visiting the Port Kembla steelworks, as he talked up the government’s backing of manufacturing workers – and, obviously, the impact any American tariffs would have on steel.
Unlike his earlier appearance, there appeared to be no heckling at his second media spot of the day. When asked about Donald Trump’s tariff threats, Albanese said:
We know that the US has a trade surplus with Australia. We have zero tariffs of any US goods into Australia, and Australian steel is making a positive difference to the US economy by putting roofs on houses, by making a difference there in the US as well.
BlueScope aren’t just investing here in Australia. They’re also investing in the United States, $5 billion of investment at plants across the states, across many facilities as well. It is in both Australia and the United States’s interest to have economic cooperation, and that’s what I am endeavouring to achieve. And we had a great discussion this week with President Trump.
He was in the seat of Whitlam, held by retiring assistant minister Stephen Jones, with the new candidate, Carol Berry. Albanese called Whitlam “the heart and soul of the Labor party”.
When you think about the Illawarra, you think about the steelworks here. This is the heart and soul of the Illawarra ... So we want this steelworks to be successful. And I know that Carol will be successful as well.
Updated
Severe weather warnings for northern Victoria and southern NSW
Severe weather warnings are in place for parts of northern Victoria and southern NSW, amid heavy rainfall.
The Bureau of Meteorology says a surface trough approaching Victoria’s southern ranges is drawing in a humid air mass from the north, with areas of rain and thunderstorms forecast to increase early this afternoon.
Heavy rainfall, which may lead to flash flooding, is possible in Victoria. In the warning area of both states, six-hourly rainfall totals of 20-40mm with isolated falls up to 70mm possible. Heavy rainfall is expected to ease by Friday evening.
Corryong in Victoria may be impacted. In NSW, locations which may be affected include Tumbarumba, Cabramurra, Selwyn, Tumut, Khancoban and Holbrook.
Updated
Bird flu detected at second poultry farm in northern Victoria
Avian influenza has been detected at a second poultry farm in northern Victoria.
Agriculture Victoria traced the presence of H7N8 to a second property in Euroa, near where the first case of 2025 was detected at the weekend.
Victoria’s acting chief veterinary officer, Dr Cameron Bell, said this result was not unexpected and there are “known connections” between the properties.
Agriculture Victoria is on the ground and supporting the affected businesses, it said in a statement.
After we confirmed the first property last week, we implemented restricted and control areas immediately to mitigate risks of disease spread.
The control area spans east of the Goulburn Valley Highway for Strathbogie shire, and includes townships Euroa, Violet Town, Longwood, Ruffy, Avenel and Strathbogie.
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ACCC says independent slot manager ‘critical’ for Sydney airport
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says the creation of an independent slot manager at Sydney airport is “critical” for improving competition despite conceding last year its impact would be small.
The commission, which is fronting senators at a parliamentary inquiry this morning, was asked about whether the Albanese government’s changes last year would improve the level of competition at the busy airport, and lower flight prices.
The changes related to the airport’s controversial slot allocation system, which restricts the airport to 80 takeoffs and landings per hour – known as slots. An overnight curfew to minimise noise further limits flight numbers.
The laws introduce an independent slot manager, introduce civil penalties, an extreme weather “recovery period” and stronger enforcement powers in an effort to crack down on the Qantas-Virgin duopoly.
The independent MP Allegra Spender asked the commission whether it believed the longstanding arrangements, which benefit incumbent airlines, could be improved as a result of the changes. The commission’s chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said:
The reforms that have been announced [and have passed], we think, are very important. We do consider, on what we have seen of the process that has been proposed, that it meets the standards across government you would expect to see in terms of integrity and independence. The critical point is to move from the situation where currently there’s a representative of each of the airlines making these decisions, which manifestly does not have the required independence, and in fact poses conflicts.
Slot hoarding is where airlines schedule more flights than they intend to run, before cancelling them in a strategic manner so as not to cancel any service more than 20% of the time, so they retain the slot at the expense of a competitor (known as the 80:20 rule). Weather cancellations don’t count towards an airline’s limit.
Qantas Group and Virgin have consistently denied they misuse slots.
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Biodiversity can benefit from ‘high-integrity’ carbon farming, report finds
“Carbon for nature” projects could begin to bridge the financing gap for protecting Australia’s biodiversity, according to a research report.
As AAP reports, a study released today found high-integrity carbon farming projects could result in large-scale landscape restoration and increased biodiversity habitats.
Government policies to date have favoured projects that support lower-cost emissions abatement, rather than high-biodiversity value projects that can involve relatively higher financial costs.
Co-authored by a peak body for the nation’s 54 natural resource management bodies and the member-led Carbon Market Institute (CMI), the report calls for a “step-change” to encourage the scale of investment required to support nature.
There was untapped potential in the carbon market for solving the “twin crises” of climate and biodiversity, CMI chief executive John Connor said.
The report found carbon projects can, and do, contribute to nature outcomes, but Australia lacked clear regulatory or commercial drivers for carbon credit buyers to invest in nature.
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Australia’s tax system fuelling wealth inequality, Anglicare report shows
Anglicare Australia has launched a report showing that Australia’s tax system is fuelling wealth inequality.
As we flagged earlier, “Paying it Forward” profiles ten OECD countries, France, Belgium, Finland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the United States and Canada. It found that:
Australia is one of the only countries that does not tax inheritances or estates
This is fuelling wealth inequality
Superannuation has become a tool for wealthy families to build inheritances, instead of being used to fund retirement.
The executive director, Kasy Chambers, said Australia is “becoming more unfair and more unequal”.
We should be using our tax system to make Australia fairer. Instead, government policies are driving inequality and making it worse. The good news is that we know what needs to be done to turn this around.
We are calling on the government to look at an estate or inheritance tax, to make sure we stop more and more wealth from being concentrated among fewer and fewer people.
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Environment organisations request mission to examine if salmon farming affecting Tasmanian world heritage area
Fourteen environment organisations have written to the World Heritage Centre asking it to send a mission to Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania’s west coast, to examine whether salmon farming is affecting the state’s world heritage area.
The letter highlights the plight of the Maugean skate, an endangered ray-like fish species that has lived in the region since the time of the dinosaurs and which is at the centre of a heated political fight over the future of fish farms in the harbour.
The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, is reconsidering the future of salmon farm licences in the harbour after a legal request by environment groups.
Scientists have advised the Australian government that fish farms are the greatest threat to the species’ survival and recommended it be dramatically scaled back or removed. The salmon industry and the Tasmanian Liberal government and Labor opposition have responded forcefully, pledging to fight any decision that affects jobs.
The Australia Institute and 13 other organisations have now asked the World Heritage Centre to visit the harbour later this year. A third of the harbour is in the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area.
The institute’s Tasmanian director, Eloise Carr, also called on the government to release its written response to a UNESCO letter on the issue in April last year. She said a Freedom of Information Act request asking for the letter was refused.
What could the Australian government possibly have to say to the World Heritage Centre that they can’t say to Australians?
The government has been asked for its response.
Marles says peace talks between Ukraine and Russia must be on Ukraine’s terms
Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia must be on Ukraine’s terms, Richard Marles says, after US president Donald Trump announced he began negotiations with Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
The defence minister told ABC radio this morning he welcomed efforts to resolve the conflict, which began in early 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, but said the conflict must be resolved on Ukraine’s terms.
It really matters this conflict is resolved on Ukraine’s terms and the reason for that is it was Russia who was the aggressor. It was Russia who broke international law, it was Russia who invaded a smaller neighbour, not by reference to international law, but really by reference to power and might. And that example cannot be allowed to stand.
Trump said he would be “OK” with Ukraine not gaining Nato membership and added it would be “unlikely” Ukraine would regain much of the territory Russia has taken control of.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had spoken to Trump and supported peace talks but would not be able to accept any agreements without Ukraine’s involvement in negotiations.
Updated
Support for Ukraine unchanged, PM says
Sticking with international news, Anthony Albanese was also asked about Donald Trump’ s indication he and Vladimir Putin have agreed to begin negotiations to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, and responded:
We have a position of support for Ukraine and that is unchanged.
‘We regard this action as unsafe’: PM on interaction between Australia and China in South China Sea
On the interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea this week, Anthony Albanese was asked if this is a step backwards in the diplomatic relationship between Canberra and Beijing.
He was also asked if he would pick up the phone to president Xi Jinping. The PM responded:
We have made representations through our normal diplomatic channels. We regard this action as unsafe. We have made that clear. We have made it public as well as in private.
Updated
Albanese tells steel workers 'we have got your back'
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been speaking to reporters at Lake Illawarra.
He was asked about modelling from treasurer Jim Chalmers about the impacts of the 25% tariffs on Australian steel from the US – will the government release this?
Albanese said his message is: “We support steel works here”.
Some voices can be heard shouting in the background as the PM speaks. He continued:
We continue to support jobs in the Illawarra and we support the steel works. My message to them today is we have got your back …
We have put a very strong case [forward] and we agreed, myself and President Trump when we talked, we agreed on the words that we used. And in President Trump’s own words he said Australia would be given great consideration for an exemption. We continue to put forward our case which is a very simple one.
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Better funding needed for men’s behavioural change programs: report
Men’s behavioural change programs need to be better funded to provide tailored, holistic and timely services that can support meaningful behaviour change, an evidence brief from Australia’s National Research organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows) and No To Violence has shown.
Men’s behaviour change programs are group-based interventions for men who have used domestic, family, and sexual violence against a current or former partner or other family members.
While these programs are a key intervention for people who use violence, the report highlights that they are not a stand-alone solution. The Anrows chief executive, Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, said:
People who use violence must be held accountable. But men’s behaviour change programs can’t do this on their own. The evidence is clear that accountability must extend beyond individual programs to a coordinated system that spans the justice, social service, housing and community sectors.
A whole-of-system approach is needed for lasting change in men’s behaviour that brings safety for victims and survivors.
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Clare weighs in on Dutton’s call to toughen citizenship-stripping laws
Circling back to Jason Clare’s interview on Sunrise earlier this morning: He was asked about calls from Peter Dutton to make changes to Australia’s citizenship regime, after a viral video of two Bankstown nurses saying they would not treat Israeli patients under their care attracted widespread political condemnation.
The male nurse has since apologised through his lawyer.
As Sarah Basford Canales reports, Dutton said a “proper process” should be in place to “understand how this individual became an Australian citizen and where the failing in the system originated and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again”.
Guardian Australia understands one of the nurses gained citizenship in 2020, years after fleeing from Afghanistan to Australia as a child, while Dutton was home affairs minister.
Asked what he thinks of the calls from Dutton, Clare said the individuals should be “utterly condemned by every right-thinking person in the country” and that their comments were “absolutely vile”.
At the moment the way that the law works, your citizenship can be taken off you as a dual citizen and you have committed a serious offence. That is the law of the land from the Labor government.
I think Peter Dutton is saying he wants an investigation into how this person became a citizen as you rightly pointed out. The reason that he is a citizen today is because of Peter Dutton.
‘It really is a moving feast’: Warnes on network disruptions
Asked about negotiations moving forward and what it would take for a deal to be finalised, Toby Warnes said:
I heard the minister this morning extended an olive branch. We’d be willing to talk to him about an olive branch to continue negotiations but last night we didn’t get one. We asked him to rescind the 471 notices and they refused.
On disruptions to the network and how prolonged this might be, he said this cannot be predicted because of the lockout notices:
No one can predict the level of disruption that this is going to cause, because you’ve essentially enabled 5,000 decisions to take place across the network by 5,000 different workers from 5,000 different experiences.
Some people might not be able to lose a day’s pay, so they’ll come to work. Other people might say, “I don’t like how I’ve been treated for the past nine months”, and decide not to come to work. It really is a moving feast.
With that, the press conference wrapped up.
Updated
Warnes on $4,500 payment in enterprise agreement
Continuing to take questions from reporters, Toby Warnes argued the only reason the $4,500 figure was raised was because the union offered to forego this in favour of a pay increase in year three:
The only reason the $4,500 came up is because we sought to bargain with the government and say, we can forego the $4,500, we’ll delete that clause from the enterprise agreement, in order to increase the pay increase in year three.
That was the only sticking point we had left. The only reason the government was, I believe, alerted to the fact that Transport [for NSW] hadn’t taken this clause out was because we tried, in good faith, to move that money from a one-off payment in the first year to a pay rise in the third.
Warnes says union didn’t issue any formal direction to members last night
Toby Warnes maintains that the union did not issue any formal direction to members last night, telling reporters:
I don’t control what my delegates out in the floor say. If I did, I’d be a much busier man than I am. We didn’t issue any formal direction to our members to do anything last night. If local workplaces who are angry about the 5,000 lockout notices take that point of view, then that’s their prerogative.
He said the union did instruct members “what their rights were, what their obligations were, what would happen if they went to work [and] what would happen if they didn’t go to work”.
What I said was, if workers came to work today and performed work and were deemed by Sydney Trains as taking the go slow – which is an action subject to the lockout for even one minute during the day – they would lose the entire day’s worth of pay, even though they’ve performed an entire day’s worth of work.
Updated
Warnes questioned on text apparently sent to members from union convener
Reporters have asked Toby Warnes about a text message to members, signed by Rail, Tram and Bus Union convener Adam Doyle, which told train drivers to “fuck the network up”.
Warnes said this message was not endorsed by him:
As I said, you’ve got 5,000 people that [were] issued these lockout notices. You’ve got a government that’s treated [them] very poorly for the past five months. It’s unsurprising you see that sort of attitude come from what is really quite an aggressive move by the government in response to what is really quite a low-level industrial action.
He said the lockout notices were the “employer issuing a direction to each worker individually to say, either come to work and do your full duties or don’t come to work at all”.
Warnes said he “acknowledge[s] that the messaging in that message wouldn’t provide people with comfort” but returned to his point regarding the lockout notices and said the government should have rescinded these.
Updated
Warnes ‘annoyed’ government didn’t rescind lockout notices
Taking questions, Toby Warnes said he was “annoyed” the government had the chance to rescind the lockout notices last night but chose not to.
When you send 5,000 notices to 5,000 people in the age of social media, you’re always going to have chatter about what people want to do … They could have rescinded it. They could rescind it at any point of time today.
The action that we’re seeing today isn’t actually caused by us. The only action we notified was a go slow, 23km/h less than the posted speed limit, over 80km/h.
Updated
Warnes says negotiations with government hit ‘sticking point’ when they requested clause be taken out of enterprise agreement
Toby Warnes said the union was negotiating into the night with the NSW government but it “hit a sticking point” when Transport for NSW requested a clause be taken out of the enterprise agreement.
That particular clause entitled our members to a one-off $4,500 payment that is payable at the beginning of each agreement. It’s a clause that we negotiated with the last government, with David Elliot when he was transport minister … and when you put something into the enterprise agreement, it becomes subject of future bargaining and can only be taken out as a bargaining claim.
He said it was “completely disingenuous” for the government to say the union wants an extra $4,500.
If Sydney Trains, New South Wales Trains and Transport for NSW’ industrial relations departments can’t read an enterprise agreement, then they really should be in a different line of work.
Updated
RTBU addressing media in Sydney
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, is speaking to reporters from Central Station in Sydney.
He said delays across the network are “entirely attributable to the government issuing, last Friday, 5,000 individual lockout notices to train crew workers” across the state.
Those lockout notices were intended to take effect on Wednesday … at midnight, those notices were postponed by the government in an effort to try and reach a deal on the Sydney NSW trains enterprise agreement. But last night, after negotiations fell over, the lockout notices took effect once again, at midnight last night.
So we have workers who are either showing up today and risking not getting paid by the government, or we have workers who have chosen not to attend work today because of those lockout notices.
Updated
RTBU to address media shortly on industrial action
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, is due to address the media at 9am this morning, in less than 10 minutes, on its industrial action and the delays to the state’s rail network.
We’ll aim to bring you the latest here on the blog as soon as we can.
In a statement this morning, Warnes said commuters were experiencing delays this morning “as a result of Transport for NSW’s decision to lock out its rail workers from Friday morning”.
Over 5,000 lock-out notices have been issued to employees on an individual basis. This is what happens when this sort of extreme industrial strategy is rolled out on vital public transport infrastructure.
He said claims from the state government that rail workers threw an extra payment into the mix are “completely untrue.”
The payment in question is an existing entitlement contained within the enterprise agreement – it is nothing new at all. In fact, the payment in question was offered up by the union in exchange for a pay rise in the final year of the agreement.
The government’s tactics of attempting to whip up public fury and using legal strategies to silence and intimidate workers needs to be put behind us.
Updated
China responds to accusations from Australia over ‘unsafe and unprofessional interaction’ in South China Sea
Circling back to earlier news about the interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea on Tuesday:
The Department of Defence yesterday released information about an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” between Australian and Chinese aircraft, where flares were allegedly released near the Australian plane.
In a press conference, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, was asked to respond to the accusations from Australia and said:
The Australian military airplane deliberately intruded into China’s airspace over Xisha Qundao without China’s permission. Such move violated China’s sovereignty and undermined China’s national security.
The Chinese side took legitimate, lawful, professional and restrained measures to expel the airplane. China has lodged serious protests with Australia and urged it to stop infringing on China’s sovereignty and making provocations and stop disrupting peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Earlier this morning (see post), the education minister, Jason Clare, said suggestions by China that Australia had impeded its sovereignty were wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
Updated
Significant delays in Sydney’s south amid three-vehicle crash
Heavy traffic and significant delays are being felt on the roads in Sydney’s south this morning, following a three-vehicle crash.
NSW police said the crash occurred in the southbound lanes on the Princes Highway at Waterfall about 6.10am, causing one of the vehicles to travel through a fence and towards railway tracks.
Police, paramedics and Fire and Rescue have all responded, and police are appealing for dashcam footage or witnesses to come forward.
Road closures and traffic diversions are in place. Live Traffic warns that “ongoing police investigations are expected to take some time.”
Souled Out music festival 2025 cancelled in latest hit to industry
Australia’s biggest R&B music festival, Souled Out, cancelled its 2025 event yesterday afternoon, in the latest hit to the nation’s festival industry.
In a post to social media, Souled Out said it had not reached the level of support it needed to remain financially viable:
Like many festivals in Australia, we have faced ongoing challenges in the current market. After exploring every possible option, we’ve had to make the tough call to cancel this year’s edition of Souled Out.
It said refunds would be issued, encouraging people to “use these funds to continue supporting live music and festivals across Australia.”
The festival was scheduled to take place in Melbourne on 22 February, Sydney on 23 February and Brisbane on 28 February, with international acts such as Don Toliver, Jhene Aiko and Vince Staples.
Regional music festival Groovin the Moo was cancelled for the second year in a row last month, just a week after Splendour in the Grass cancelled its 2025 edition, also for the second year running. Bluesfest’s 2025 edition will also be its last, it was announced last year.
Emergency warning issued amid Tropical Cyclone Zelia
Early this morning, a cyclone emergency warning was issued for Pardoo Roadhouse to Whim Creek and inland to west of Marble Bar, amid Tropical Cyclone Zelia. The warning said:
Shelter indoors now. There is a threat to lives and homes. You are in danger and need to act immediately.
You can read more on the tropical cyclone below:
No train services running on south coast line amid industrial action, delays
Just circling back to the delays across the Sydney and New South Wales train network:
According to the Transport for NSW website, there are “lengthy delays, service cancellations and very large service gaps” expected to today amid industrial action.
As we reported just earlier, trains will run 23km/h slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80km/h, amid the action from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.
An alert on the Transport for NSW website reads:
Services will be affected on all lines but will be particularly impacted on the south coast line where there are no train services running.
There are 4 buses operating on the South Coast Line to help move passengers. Three of them are running between Wollongong and Kiama and one is running between Kiama and Bomaderry.
Our teams are working hard to recover as much of the timetable as possible, however, due to a high level of staff absences, we are looking at ongoing, substantial, and worsening disruption.
Updated
Steggall and McKenzie have back-and-forth over electoral reforms
Earlier in the week, the major parties struck a deal to cap political donations and campaign spending, sidelining crossbenchers in a major overhaul of federal electoral laws.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie spoke on Sky News about this earlier, and was asked how much this move had to do with curbing the teals. She argued that the “union movement [and] the industrial renewable complex” was funding teals, and that this threatened transparency.
Teal MP Zali Steggall was also on the program, and said the “only concessions that occurred in relation to the negotiations between Labor and the Coalition was, in fact, to reduce transparency”.
At the end of the day, if this was so above board, why does it have to be ran through parliament? Why could it not take the course of all pieces of legislation and be sent to inquiry so that we actually can interrogate the legislation and ensure the public gets bang for buck?
McKenzie and Steggall had a back-and-forth over whether or not the bill was adequately scrutinised. As Dan Jervis-Bardy reports, independent thinktank Centre for Public Integrity said it was an “affront to our democratic process” that such complex legislation could be rammed through without a parliamentary inquiry.
But the government had argued that donation and spending caps were widely canvassed by parliament’s joint standing committee on electoral matters, whose recommendations shaped Don Farrell’s bill. As debate wrapped up, Steggall said:
There is there is no one that is duped by this as being an attempt of the major parties to delve into public funds to keep themselves on a drip support, because they know their popularity with people is falling dramatically with every election.
More from Dr Gabor Maté’s speech
Continuing from our last post: Dr Gabor Maté said the “vast majority of people who are opposed to Israeli policy and the Israeli occupation, and the deprivation [of Palestinians], are not antisemites.”
They’re just human beings whose hearts are broken, and were Israel to behave differently they would have no anti-Jewish sentiment whatsoever.
Maté is in Australia to tour his latest book, The Myth of Normal. Guardian Australia was invited to Thursday’s sold-out event by the Jewish Council of Australia.
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Holocaust survivor and author Dr Gabor Maté addresses Wheeler Centre in Melbourne
Hundreds of members of Melbourne’s Jewish community gathered at the Wheeler Centre last night for a frank and bracing discussion about trauma, liberation, justice and Israel’s war on Gaza with renowned Jewish trauma specialist, Holocaust survivor and author Dr Gabor Maté.
In conversation with human rights lawyer and former South African anti-apartheid activist Emeritus Prof Andrea Durbach, Maté described his experience as a child who survived the Nazi encroachment on Budapest, his youth in the Zionist movement and his repudiation of it after the Vietnam war.
I began to question why is the same press that is so enthusiastically and relentlessly lying about Vietnam so supportive of us Jews? The same dishonest, malevolent western press? And then I began to do some research … Right from the beginning of Zionism, there’d been Jews, even Zionists, who opposed the Zionist project, because they knew where it was going.
Israel’s war on Gaza and the conflation of Zionism and Israel’s actions with Jewish identity by Jewish organisations around the world was contributing to the rise in antisemitism, and the logic of Israel’s actions was reinforced by the colonial countries in which many Jewish people live, Maté said.
Racism in general is rising in the world, and so is antisemitism, but I don’t see it as distinct from other forms of racism. Number one, we have to ask, why is racism rising, and what are the forces driving that? … When Israel declares itself to be – which it has – the state of the Jews … and it acts in the name of the Jews, for the benefit of the Jews – that’s what we’re telling the world – then what are people supposed to think of the Jews when the Jews massacre Palestinian children?
So who’s creating it? Who’s creating this identification of mass murder with Jewishness? … The same Jewish organisations that complain about antisemitism are feeding it with identification of these unspeakable acts and this oppression and this terrible occupation with the Jews – “the Jews” in quotation marks.
Updated
Call to bring back inheritance tax to tackle wealth gap
Inheritance taxes were abolished in Australia in the late ‘90s – but Anglicare Australia argues in a report today that the government should seriously look into reinstating it, AAP reports. Its executive director, Kasy Chambers, said:
Australia is becoming more unfair and more unequal. Our research shows that we are one of the only countries in the OECD that doesn’t tax big inheritances. This has turbocharged inequality, concentrating wealth among a smaller and smaller group of people.
Anglicare is calling for a tax on high-value inheritances above $2m, not including the family home, which would avoid placing additional burden on low- and middle-class households.
In recent years, Australia’s taxation burden has increasingly fallen on working Australians through personal income tax while taxes on wealth – such as capital gains and land taxes – contribute a relatively small proportion, in part due to generous concessions.
That wealth can be passed on virtually tax-free, entrenching generational equality and making it harder for people without privileged upbringings to achieve financial security.
At the last two federal elections, Labor was assailed by scare campaigns claiming they would institute “death taxes” if elected, despite having no plans to resurrect an inheritance tax. Australia Institute chief economist Greg Jericho said such proposals are easy to malign, despite the fact they would benefit most of the population, because average Australians are sold an aspirational dream.
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Clare rejects Beijing claim that Australia violated Chinese sovereignty in aircraft encounter
The education minister, Jason Clare, has also weighed in on those reports of an interaction between Australia and China in the South China Sea.
On Sunrise, he was asked about China’s response to the fighter jet incident – that Australia had violated Chinese sovereignty – and said this was wrong:
It is international airspace. I know this is contested but that is international airspace. The actions of that Chinese pilot were wrong.
He said the government made an official complaint to the Chinese authorities about this because “when you fire off flares 30m from an Australian aircraft, it is very dangerous [and] people could have got hurt”.
Military warships will always come into contact with each other but they need to do that in a safe way. Just as this is international air spare, Chinese frigates off the coast of Australia are in international waters. They are legally allowed to be there.
We also are legally allowed to monitor them and shadow them but to do it in a safe and professional way. That is the way that this should have occurred with this aircraft.
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Dutton says tariffs would damage US-Australia relationship if they stay in place
The US president, Donald Trump, has this week said there would be “no exemptions” to his 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports – despite efforts from the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, to gain an exemption for Australia.
Peter Dutton was asked about accusations from the Trump administration that Australian exporters had exploited the tariff exemptions it was granted in 2018 – did Australia break its promise to Trump?
The opposition leader said the “short answer is no” and that he doesn’t support the tariffs “at all”.
I think they damage the relationship if they stay in place now. As the president’s demonstrated, he’s a deal-maker and I think the prime minister, frankly, should have been preparing the ground long before this decision was made.
Dutton criticised Albanese for not going to visit the president after his inauguration and argued there had been “limited engagement even by the ambassador or the foreign minister with her counterparts or his counterparts”.
I just think the prime minister has dropped the ball here. He’s just not up to the task of negotiating these big deals. And there is a deal, I’m sure, to be done with the United States, and there is a lot Australia has to offer. But it’s wrong that these tariffs are in place.
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Dutton calls for more details on interaction between Australia and China in South China Sea
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has also weighed in on that interaction between Australian and Chinese aircraft in the South China Sea on Tuesday.
Speaking on the Today show, he said this was “obviously very concerning and it’s incredibly unsafe”.
He took aim at the prime minister and deputy PM for not saying anything about this in parliament yesterday and waiting until parliament had concluded.
And then Richard Marles did a press conference to provide details. So we haven’t had a briefing on it as yet, but on what the deputy prime minister says it is deeply concerning because it puts that safety at risk, the safety of our personnel. And that is not something that Australia can tolerate.
[It] needs to be transparent in terms of what’s happened, and I just don’t think we’ve seen all of the detail yet from Richard Marles.
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Wayne Swan on interaction between Australian and Chinese aircraft in South China Sea
Yesterday, the Department of Defence released information about an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” between Australian and Chinese aircraft in the South China Sea on Tuesday, where flares were allegedly released near the Australian plane.
Asked about the reports on the Today show earlier, the national president of the Labor party, Wayne Swan, said this was “happening with increasing frequency across the region.”
It doesn’t happen by accident, but it is happening right across the region. It’s happening in Vietnam, it’s happening in the Philippines … and therefore we have to be as prepared as we possibly can, and we have to be as professional as we possibly can while making our long-term defence arrangements, putting those in place with all of our allies.
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Good morning
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties. I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage for most of today.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s go.
Emergency warning over Tasmania bushfire
Communities are bracing as an out-of-control bushfire bears down on Tasmania’s west coast, with more than 20 blazes raging as weather conditions rapidly change, AAP reports.
Residents and visitors to Corinna were issued with an emergency warning last night and told to take shelter. The blazes put people and homes at high risk, authorities warned.
Corinna and surrounds is currently at high risk. The fire is travelling towards Corinna. Burning embers may threaten your home before the main fire arrives. Smoke and ash may make it difficult to see and breathe.
Schools were closed and evacuation centres established. Residents were urged to avoid using hoses and sprinklers unless an ember attack directly threatened their property.
Scott Vinen from the Tasmanian fire service said embers had begun to descend on the town, which prompted an emergency warning.
We have had embers in and around Zeehan with smoke. We do have some firefighting resources in the area who will be patrolling and looking out for any ember attacks.
Watch and act alerts were in place for Sandy Cape, Pieman Heads, Conical Rocks, Savage River and Granville Harbour. In all, there were 25 bushfire warnings issued across Tasmania.
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Five new university hubs for Western Sydney, Brisbane and Logan
Western Sydney, Brisbane and Logan will be home to five new university study hubs to bring the outer suburbs closer to higher education.
Labor will announce the locations of the study hubs today, which were a key recommendation of the Universities Accord to encourage university attainment among under-represented outer suburban Australians.
They will be located in Fairfield, Mt Druitt and Liverpool in western Sydney, Inala in Brisbane and Beenleigh in Logan.
They add to 10 existing suburban university study hubs, with all 15 expected to be open by late 2025, offering campus-style facilities for students undertaking a degree. Some 56 regional study hubs are operating across the country.
The minister for education, Jason Clare, said almost half of people in their 20s and 30s had a university degree, but not in outer suburbs or regional Australia.
I know growing up in western Sydney I saw a lot of golden arches and KFC and Westfield but not a lot of university crests. A lot of my friends felt like university was somewhere else for someone else. I want this to change, and that means bringing university closer to where people live.
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'Super black' sky warning for WA
A “super black” sky has provided a chilling reminder of the potential danger ahead as a destructive cyclone zeros in on Australia, according to Australian Associated Press.
Tropical Cyclone Zelia is set to hit Western Australia’s Pilbara coast today, becoming a category five system with forecast wind gusts of more than 300km/h.
Shops, schools, roads and ports in WA’s north-west have closed in preparation for the “dangerous” system, with people told to take shelter.
Severe Tropical #CycloneZelia, a category 5 system, is slow moving to the north of Port Hedland and is forecast to move south towards the coast today.
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) February 13, 2025
#CycloneZelia to bring very destructive winds and very heavy rain to the Pilbara coast.
Latest: https://t.co/QdjBLkJdvZ pic.twitter.com/VICE9Nz2yy
Carrie McDowell called the “super black” sky over her Karratha community ominous as locals were warned to expect dangerous winds and more heavy rain.
The 22,000-strong town of Karratha sits in the region bracing for impact when Cyclone Zelia is forecast to cross the coast between Dampier and De Grey, including Port Hedland, late today. McDowell told AAP:
We’ve not had a category five while we lived here. We had a category three in 2020 and that was really scary. I’m a bit worried about flooding.
Karratha and Port Hedland are both at risk of a direct hit, the Bureau of Meteorology warned. The bureau’s James Ashley said:
This is a very dangerous system that will cause significant impacts.
Read our story here:
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NSW government asks commuters to avoid trains
The New South Wales government is urging commuters to delay non-urgent travel today, amid industrial action.
As we reported just earlier, trains will run 23km/h slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80km/h, amid industrial action from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.
A NSW government spokesperson said it was looking at all its options, “including urgent legal action”.
After extensive negotiations over the last few days the unions at the last hour asked for a $4,500 bonus payment for every rail worker. This was never part of our offer, nor was it in the union’s counter offer.
We have a fair and reasonable pay offer on the table. We can’t say yes to rail unions and no to nurses. We have made that clear.
As a result the union has instructed drivers not to show up to work today. We are looking at all our options including urgent legal action.
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BoM shares long-range forecast
Warmer than average days and nights are on the cards across large parts of the country in the coming months as Australia enters autumn, the Bureau of Meteorology has revealed.
Its long-range forecast for March to May, released on Thursday evening, predicts warmer than average days are “likely to very likely” across most of the nation, with an increased change of unusually high daytime temperatures across the southern two-thirds of the country, particularly Tasmania.
Warmer than average nights are also “very likely”, alongside unusually high overnight temperatures.
The forecast also predicts above average rainfall across much of northern Australia and parts of the eastern coastline for autumn. Australia’s south is expected to fall within the typical rainfall range.
It has been a sweltering start to the year, off the back of a sweltering 2024. January this year was Australia’s second-warmest on record, with above average weather across most of the country. Ocean temperatures are forecast to remain warmer than average in March to May.
Australia’s land surface has warmed by 1.5C since 1910, according to the BoM, with the climate crisis making heatwaves longer and more intense, and increasing the number of extremely hot days.
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Sydney commuters set for fresh delays
Sydney commuters will be hit by fresh delays on the train network this morning as rail workers go ahead with their threat to run trains below the speed limits.
Trains will run 23km/h slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80km/h, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union said last night in a planned protected industrial action.
The union blamed Transport for NSW for backing out of an agreement to head off the dispute, while it also said the state government had confirmed its plans to lock out workers from 12am this morning.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW secretary, Toby Warnes, said while the extent of the delays was unclear, commuters should plan for delays, and direct their anger at the NSW government for the uncertainty.
Commuters across the state should prepare for delays as a result of the NSW government’s decision to lock out its rail workers from Friday morning.
We asked the government to rescind its lockout notices to ensure services ran smoothly on Friday but unfortunately they refused. We hope that the NSW government doesn’t choose to blow this up and cause serious delays, but the reality is we can’t predict the impact.
It’s bitterly disappointing that we haven’t been able to reach a sensible agreement over the past 48 hours. We were incredibly close in negotiations but it seems there are people within Transport for NSW who are still intent on blowing this dispute up.
Sydney Trains apologised for the expected delays and said talks on a new enterprise agreement were continuing before the next Fair Work Commission hearing on Monday.
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind to pick up the reins.
The two main parties have been accused of a “bidding war” in their response to anti-Israeli comments by two nurses in Sydney. But we report today on the constitutional law expert who believes there could be a ceiling to Peter Dutton’s possible preferred policy of rethinking citizenship rules. Helen Irving thinks that the Coalition leader’s suggestion of stripping citizenship from people who fall foul of Australian norms could require a referendum.
Khaled Sabsabi, the western Sydney artist who fled Lebanon’s civil war as a child, has been dropped from representing Australia at the 61st Venice Biennale amid criticism of his appointment. Creative Australia, which only announced its pick five days ago, released a statement last night saying Sabsabi had been removed because of the need to avoid “divisive debate”. The artist has portrayed the late Hezbollah leader in his art and his selection prompted questions in the federal Senate. We’ll have all the reaction as it happens today.
Sydney commuters will be hit by fresh delays on the train network this morning as rail workers go ahead with their threat to run trains below the speed limits. Trains will run 23kmh slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80kmh, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union said last night in a planned protected industrial action. More coming up.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is set to make landfall on the north coast of Western Australia today. The storm has rapidly intensified since developing over the Indian Ocean and is forecast to be at its most dangerous and powerful when it hits land. Schools, ports and roads have been closed amid fears that the category five system could bring ferocious wind gusts up to 320km/h. More coming up.
